During winding of yarn with various winding machines to form a package the yarn is reciprocated across the face of the winding package as said package is rotated. Various types of mechanisms for reciprocating, or traversing, the yarn are employed. One such type is the so-called belt traverse wherein a continuous belt travelling around two centers reciprocates a yarn guide. The prior art belt traversing mechanisms have various disadvantages all of which are overcome by the present invention. For example, the prior art belt traversing mechanisms employ a pair of guides travelling continuously in opposite directions with linear portions of their paths being placed adjacent to the package being wound. This type of structure has the disadvantage that the winding strand of yarn must be transferred from one yarn guide to another. Such transfer requires great precision in manufacture, adjustment and operation of the machine. In addition, in order to intercept the strand, the guides must overhang the belts to such an extent that a sufficient imbalance of the guide assemblies occurs which results in distortion of the belt from its natural flat path which can disturb the interception of the strand at high speeds.
There are also traverse mechanisms which do not incorporate belts such as those of the well known cam type. Such cam type traverses are also disadvantageous in that the reciprocating parts of these traverses are of relatively large mass and are therefore limited in the speed of operation for traversing the yarn. Other cam mechanisms, although of smaller mass, have poor wear resistance since, in order to reduce mass, the rolls which travel in the grooves of a rotating cam have been eliminated and substituted with components which slide in the grooves, thereby causing rapid wear of these components.
It is desirable to wind at speeds higher than now commonly employed because of increased yarn production speeds, but the present mechanisms are limited in this respect. It is therefore highly desirable to provide an apparatus for the high speed traversing and winding of yarn to which the instant invention is directed.